Environment
Toward a resource recycling society
Achieving a sustainable society is a goal shared around the world. Tackling environmental problems such as global warming and resource depletion will help achieve this goal, and corporations are increasingly expected to lead those efforts.
The Nippon Soda Group utilizes the water treatment technology, resource recycling technology, heavy metal removal technology, and other technologies developed over its long history, to come up with various environmental solutions and develop business. For sustainable plant protection, we are also contributing to the protection of the pine forests that are a feature of the beautiful, unique natural landscapes of Japan.
SDGs
Materiality
Contributing to the environmentally sound recycling of resources through chemistry (technological expertise)
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01
Steady supply of water resources
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02
Reduction of environmental burden caused by waste
KPI
① Volume of water contributed
Volume of water that can be treated with solid chlorine agents sold by Nippon Soda in FY 2022: 18.9 million tons
② Current initiatives
In the field of waste treatment, at Nippon Soda we have developed and supply HIDION, a heavy metal fixing agent for fly ash treatment at waste incineration plants. Approximately 33.3 million tons* of waste is treated annually in Japan, and approximately 1.3 million tons* of fly ash is generated through the incineration process. The high quantities of lead and other heavy metals in this fly ash can pollute the environment when released as metal ions, and so by law, fly ash must undergo insolubilization treatment.
In addition to demonstrating excellent heavy metal fixing performance in this process, HIDION is highly safe to handle, and has therefore received wide acclaim and been used by many incineration plants across Japan for more than twenty years.
- *Calculated based on the Ministry of the Environment’s “State of Discharge and Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste in FY2022 (March 29, 2022).”
Materiality
Achieving sustainable plant protection
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01
Protection of precious trees such as pines and cherry blossoms from harmful insects
KPI
① Current initiatives:
Contribution to Pine Forest Protection and Contribution to Local Communities
Achievements in FY 2022
- 1.
Forests and Insect Damage Symposium (Cosponsor: Japan Greenery Research and Development Center; Assistance: Forestry Agency)
We hosted an online symposium on forests and insect damage where frontline researchers communicated the latest information on tree wilt and damage to cherry blossom trees caused by red-necked longhorn beetles, both of which have become serious issues in recent years.
We welcomed approximately 900 participants from across Japan to the online symposium, including municipal officials, landscapers, and tree surgeons. - 2. Using various photographs, we held a presentation about the mechanisms of pine wilt and our prevention initiatives for approximately 100 grade six students from an elementary school in Koto-ku, Tokyo. Hearing about pine wilt for the first time, the students were hugely interested in the topic and learned about the importance of forest protection for the future.
- 3. Due to an outbreak of pine wilt on an outlying island of Okinawa Prefecture, we dispatched a number of experts to protect the Okinawa pine trees (a designated natural monument) on the island, and hosted a lecture about pine wilt prevention using trunk injection. The initiative was also covered by local media outlets.
